


Violent Violets

by ThatAloneOne



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Kissing, Pretending its just acting, Theatre AU, spoiler alert: they're too gay for that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 08:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9225923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatAloneOne/pseuds/ThatAloneOne
Summary: Laura hates Carmilla Karnstein, her costar in the new musical Violent Violets. The problem? Carmilla plays her love interest, and it's time to rehearse the finale.





	

“Laura, we’re starting to work on the finale!”

Laura carefully scored the last word on her line, then scowled. As if to accentuate that, a high heel fell from the catwalk, landing next to her. It was zebra striped, with a heel that somehow looked longer than six inches. Against the scuffed wood floor of the stage, it looked almost embarrassed. Laura was pleased with herself for not screaming. She had, the first time a wayward wardrobe item had come plummeting down from the heavens. 

Laura tipped her head back and hollered at the footsteps clattering away across the catwalk, “JP, careful!” Then, to the woman standing over her, she asked, “Already?"

Perry clasped her hands together, looking even more frazzled than she had that morning, which was impressive. It almost looked like LaF, the light and sound tech, had accidentally hooked her up to the wiring instead of the microphones. “I know you and Carmilla-”

“Don’t like each other?”

“Haven’t gotten along perfectly  _yet_ , but we want to get the blocking down  _tight_.” Perry jittered, reweaving her fingers. “With all the trolley of love or whatever it’s-”

Laura set her script down on the top of the stairs and stood, stretching to work some of the knots out of her back from that accidental nap in one of the theatre seats this morning. Lesson learned — there was no point in trying to have a morning without hot cocoa. “It’s fine, Perry. That’s what you pay me for, right?”

Kissing unfairly hot… raging bad people was the job description for acting, right?

Perry deflated, but in a good way, like LaF had finally disconnected the cord that was electrocuting her. Laura had never been more grateful that she’d found her theatre calling in acting — stage managing was the most thankless job in the world. “Thank you, Laura.”

“No problem!” Laura stretched again, wincing. “I’ll be…”

Perry was already typing frantically into her phone, trying to raise Carmilla from Dracula’s coffin, or wherever she spent her time when she wasn’t needed onstage. Or when she was needed onstage. 

They  _did_  need to get to work on the finale. The theatre had only one modern piece of theatre technology — a turntable set right in the centre of the stage. LaF had christened it the Thrill Ride O’Love. The only time they used it in the whole play was for the final scene, where it was so swoopingly, cinematically romantic that the main characters would have to be pried apart by centrifugal force.

Laura didn’t think LaF had hooked up the fireworks or booster rockets yet, but she was sure they would get around to it soon enough. She had worked with LaF on projects before, and they always ended up breaking no less than fifteen safety rules and violating the entire spirit of the fire guidelines. It looked good, though. When everything didn’t catch on fire. They claimed accidents were unlikely to happen again, but then again, they’d said something similar about the donkey on Midsummer Night’s Dream, and  _that_  had definitely happened.

Laura made her way to the edge of the turntable, the telltale cross section of wood grain on the stage floor. 

Quietly, Laura started running through her lines, miming through the already-decided blocking with small steps and hand movements. Back, forwards, on the slightly tippy circle on the floor, and off. She didn’t realize how deep she’d gotten into her character until the last step back ran her right into someone.

“Watch where you’re going,” the worst costar in the world said, and Laura nearly jumped out of her skin. “Daydreaming, much, creampuff?” Carmilla smiled knowingly, like she could read Laura’s mind which she definitely could not even though there was definitely nothing happening in Laura’s mind at all. “If it’s me in there, I really can’t blame you.”

Laura sputtered. “I am not- I was rehearsing!”

Carmilla only raised a perfect eyebrow. “Rehearsing how to blush? Listen, cutie, I don’t think that part needs practice. You’re always red.”

Laura would have fired back a witty retort, she  _would_ , but that was when Perry bustled up. Light winked from up in the booth, LaF knocking the lamp almost out the little window before righting it. “Ready to go, Perr!”

Perry waved at them, some sort of language only the two of them understood, then focused back in on Laura and Carmilla. LaF retreated into their booth, grinning wickedly. “We’ll just go from the last line, okay? That’s the last line of the play, okay? Not the last line of the page.”

“Got it,” Carmilla said, and between one blink and the next everything about her body changed, the solidness of her stance melting away. When Laura looked again, there was something so  _soft_  in her face. 

Carmilla made the first move in their blocking, or maybe it wasn’t. Laura was too scrambled to tell. She stepped in closer to Laura, who took another stumbling step back, mostly in character. Everything came back to her, the days of practicing with a multicoloured script in hand. She could do this. It was just acting.

Carmilla prowled after her until they were smack dab in the centre of the stage, and caught Laura’s hand in hers. The contact between them burned — the contact between their characters, coming home to each other at last. “If you can believe it I… I only ever wanted you.”

The Thrill Ride O’Love rumbled to life beneath them. Carmilla cupped Laura’s cheeks, so close that Laura could feel the warmth pouring off her body, close enough that she could smell the scent of old books on Carmilla’s skin. 

LaF had a point with their crazy technology. With the walls spinning away behind Carmilla, the gentle way the world was spinning beneath her feet, Laura felt like she was in a movie. Carmilla leant in, and Laura hoped to Hufflepuff that she didn’t have any lines because-

Usually, there was something called stage kissing, so you didn’t actually have to french your costar onstage, but Carmilla seemed to have skipped that class, and well, Laura wasn’t about to remind her. 

They kissed, the world vanishing just down to the two of them, their lips, Carmilla’s hands soft on Laura’s cheeks, Laura gripping her elbows. They kissed, and they kissed, until Carmilla pulled back, slow, almost unwillingly. The Thrill Ride O’Love ground to a startling halt. 

“That was great!” Perry said, the most delighted Laura had ever heard, but she barely registered. Carmilla was still smiling, the same sweet smile she’d seen moments before, when the world started moving. Laura grinned back. Only this time, Laura felt like it couldn’t be just acting.

Maybe Carmilla Karnstein wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> This came from a prompt on my tumblr, writerproblem193. I'm still accepting prompts for minifics, so you can hop over and do that if you like!
> 
>  
> 
> Side note, I want somebody to write a play called Violent Violets about lesbians, one of them named Violet, that ends with a cinematic spinning stage. "What do you even want?" "I've only ever wanted you."


End file.
